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Has Minela outsourced ??

Willee - Texas

Willee - Texas

Well-known member
A friend was telling me that Minelab outsourced its Excalibur II production to a small company in China to cover demand while it moved its manufacturing plant to its new location.
He said the Chinese made units could be identified by a red star behind the serial number.
Anyone else heard anything like that?
 
unfortuneately its to easy to start a rumor not based on fact.

if your correct then its good info to pass along for those who care about such things.

does anyone call minelab anymore and just ask direct questions?
 
who cares anyhow where there made.
you tell me that you have nothing in your house made from china??same machines and same quality I'm sure..
ill buy one no matter when they become available,I'm sure just because they move there plant that there going to sacrifice quality..not good business sense..
IMHO
john
 
Why would anyone want to pay top dollar for merchandise that was produced by the cheapest labor and noted for poor quality.Companies that use these tactics cheapest labor is best to save production cost,bottom line will fail.Buyer's will find another product.HH Ron
 
We know that there have been Chinese F75 knock offs so I'd be careful.
 
I'd be very weary of buying a Minelab that they are having made in China, even if it's an "official" product that Minelab wants built there. These companies who are contracted to build things for other companies will replace required parts with the same component but that don't have the same tight tolerances for things like circuit noise/etc. To the eye both parts will look identical but if you look up the specs one can be much more efficient and have less circuit noise versus the other, as a result costing less to buy in quantity. Yea, it may only be a small savings but these China manufacturers will cut costs any way they can. They'll do it on the sly, swapping parts bins in the middle of the night when no representative from the company they have a contract with is present to watch over things.

On the other hand, if Minelab is going to have things made in China for now on then you have no choice, but if it's just a temporary thing until they get their own factories up and running I would wait for the "real" thing.
 
After careful consideration ... I tend to think my friend was "full of it".
I seriously doubt Minelab would pull such a bone head stunt as that.

True enough ... quality is quality no mater where something is made.
The Chinese people are not dumb and they can certainly learn new skills.
But its has been my experience that anything built there is cheaply made and sub-standard.

Willee
 
Critter, I will always use a Minelab as long as I can find a used one for sale. With whats been going on with them lately and after my last sour experience dealing with customer service I will not invest any new money in them. I will treat my Minelabs like disposable lighters. If anything goes wrong with one of mine I will salvage any parts I can and buy another used one.
 
By being outsourced do you mean made in china? I think the answer is no. But is it outsourced? YES. The economy is booming in china and labor cost are rising so much so that companies are looking for "cheaper than China labor". They're looking at countries like Singapore and Malaysia. Does this sound familiar? I think Minelab is just ahead of the game. I hope Tesoro and Whites doesn't follow along. Minelab has had quality issues in the past for example the cam locks on the explorers and the ears on the xterras. Only difference the had a good service department. I have issues with an xterra coil and called last week only to be told a tech would call me back . I called again again today and was told he would reply within 24 to 48 hrs. What kind of BS is that? Doesn't sound like a typical "Tesoro Response" does it? So much for the great service. I guess I'm supposed to wait by the phone for 2 days for a call. If a Chinese company copies the Minelab line for a cheaper price I would buy one in a heartbeat if I wanted it. I wouldn't buy a Chinese tesoro, whites or fisher. But the way I look at it is why should Minelab get a big profit for just being the middle man. The only Minelab I will own in the future is the sovereign and if things don't change, it may go as well.
 
n/t
 
Actually, exact. My Advantage went toes up. I wasn't sure if it was in the control box or the coil. First thing I did was check the connector on the coil. Not having any knowledge on the wiring for this coil and not seeing any broken wire or old solder I could see an extra wire that looked like it had been clipped off short so I wasn't sure if that wire had ever been connected or not. If it was just a broken wire I could solder it my self or run it down to the local electronics repair shop and not waist the time. It was a fairly new coil .Rather than send the control box and coil in I called Minelab and asked if I could quickly talk to a tech. to ask how many wires were soldered on this coil. I was told they were to busy and would return my call. They never called back so a couple days later I called again and got the same response. Same thing no call back. After trying a couple more times with the same result and not wanting to deal with Minelab after that I just bought a new coil. When I checked the wiring on the new coil I saw that it was actually a broken wire on the other coil. I could have saved a lot of money and time if they would have given me less than a minute of their time. Won't happen again.
 
We were told that they were going to move the Assembly from Ireland to Malaysia and feel your source thought it was China. Myself i think it will still have the same quality as it had before which I felt with the Sovereign may look not as well as some, but they sure do take a beating and keep on going and going.
 
crazyman said:
(SNIP)
Same thing no call back. After trying a couple more times with the same result and not wanting to deal with Minelab after that I just bought a new coil. When I checked the wiring on the new coil I saw that it was actually a broken wire on the other coil. I could have saved a lot of money and time if they would have given me less than a minute of their time. Won't happen again.
Click to expand...

Crazyman, did you think about posting a request for someone to take a photo of the wiring on their Advantage connector and post it up for you.
We can be a great resource to each other if we only will ask.
That could have saved you some time and money.

Willee
 
From what I've read and been able to gather, Minelab (Codan) is moving its production from Ireland to Malaysia to cut costs.

Any recent considerations of a possible "new" ML purchase have ended for me and if I buy one it will be used!

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?63,997774

In my experience, any company that has moved manufacturing to Asia, China, Malaysia,......etc, has paid the price with inferior products being the end result. The problems start with the company not being able to fully monitor the production managers and supervisors that have been known to purchase low end components/parts for personal financial gain.

This same issue was responsible for the recent lead paint problem with the US toy manufactures. They purchased toxic (known) lead paint because it's cheap and real problem and were pocketing the money. This was all due to corruption and extreme poverty within those areas as they don't pay the workers well (they really just don't care)!

When you manufacture parts and use cheap overseas labor for any type of production, you lose quality and accountability in the product!

Thanks!
 
I think that if china, malasia, indonesia and taiwan were to stop production of electronics the world would grind to a halt, most electronic stuff from tv's to pc's are made over there or parts of them at least, even if they are assembled in other countries, even the best makes
 
I called Minelab on 2 different occasions . Did the call back thing twice ,spoke to a representive they told me they would get back to me never recieved a call on either occasion
 
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